Ep. 5 - Incentives Inadvertently Deprioritise Client Experience

Discover how typical incentive schemes in financial services can unintentionally sideline client experience, and learn actionable CX strategies to foster a genuinely client-centric culture that improves client engagement and loyalty. In this episode Melanie Aimer, Hamish Taylor and Adam Grainger unpack the hidden ways internal incentives—ranging from bonuses and departmental KPIs to price-driven client promotions—can erode trust and undermine long-term client retention strategies in the finance sector. Drawing from real-world stories across asset management, private banking, and travel, the discussion explores how focusing on easy-to-measure, internal metrics often leads to customer blind spots, fragmented user experience, and ultimately, a slip in client loyalty. You’ll hear about CX best practices that rethink scorecards, align incentives to meaningful client outcomes, and empower every department—including the traditionally “back office”—to enhance the financial services client experience. The episode also reveals practical steps for measuring the right CX metrics and KPIs, designing rewards that reinforce positive client behavior, and using innovative approaches to build client retention strategies that last. Whether you’re driving digital transformation in CX, seeking to improve user experience in finance, or want tips on embedding a client-centric culture throughout your organization, this episode is packed with insights to help you stay competitive and put what matters most—your clients—at the heart of every strategy. Topics Discussed in this Episode: Incentives shaping client-centric cultureCX strategies for financial servicesImproving client engagement through metricsAligning CX incentives with client valueOrganizational behaviors affecting client experience in finance Timestamps 00:00 "Client Experience: Regulator Friend or Foe?" 03:49 Erosion of Brand Trust 08:21 "Incentives and Operational Efficiency" 10:34 Train Delays: Eurostar Challenges 16:06 "Rethinking Banker Incentives" 17:36 Service Center Incentivization Issues 20:13 "Client Engagement and Incentives" 25:08 "Share and Discuss Episode" About the Competitive CX Hosts Hamish Taylor Hamish Taylor is a world leader in Customer-led Transformations. A multi-award winning CEO, his career has taken him from Brand Management at Procter and Gamble, Consultancy at PWC and Head of Brands at BA to become CEO of channel tunnel railway Eurostar and CEO of Sainsbury’s Bank – all before he was 40. In each case he left a record of significant growth by challenging the established way of operating and, in particular, by enabling the organisation to place its customers at the core of all activities. More recently, he has taken his “Customer-led Transformation” approach to hundreds of organisations and teams in 48 different countries. He has also been dubbed the “MasterThief” for his ability to take ideas from one industry or discipline to another. Melanie Aimer Melanie has over 20 years of financial services experience spanning Capital Markets, Corporate & Investment Banking, Asset Management, Private Bank & Wealth Management with Citibank, BNP Paribas and Barclays. With her vast multinational corporate Board and Exco level experience, Melanie has an award-winning record of delivering innovative client transformation across the full client and customer value-chain delivering best-in-class services in complex global organizations in a cost-effective agile manner and simplifying front to back processes spanning across people, marketing, data, and digital. Adam Grainger After a career leading client experience (CX) transformations for large and medium-sized asset management firms, Adam established Accomplish to translate CX for asset managers into a tangible and measurable discipline. Between 2018 and 2021, Adam chaired the global Asset Management CX Forum. This was an industry-wide innovation initiative that resulted in Accomplish’s Client Behavior Benchmark that lets asset managers pinpoint, in time and money, where their pre- and post-sales experience has out and underperformed. Adam has an MBA from the London Business School, where he studied behavioral economics and decision-making. Follow Competitive CX on Facebook, InstagramSubscribe to the Competitive CX Podcast Linkedin PageVisit our website to get the latest episodeFollow Hamish, Melanie and Adam on LinkedIn